238 INSECTS AT HOME. 



possible to keep tliem from the kitchen at night, so strong was 

 their love for the Cockroaches. 



In popular kitchen parlance these insects are called Black- 

 beetles, thoiigli why they should have such a name, not being 

 beetles and their colour being dark brown with a decided 

 tinge of red in it, is not easy to see. I hud on enquiry that 

 in some bakehouses the males, which are distinguislied by their 

 wings, are called Cockroaches, while the wingless females are 

 termed lilack-beetles. As is the case with insects generally, 

 the Cockroach, when it first emerges from its pupal skin, is 

 almost white, the dark colour being attained by slow degrees. 

 Wishing to know how long a period was required for the deve- 

 lopment of the dark hue, I tried tlie experiment by catching 

 one of these ' white Black-beetles,' as the servants called it, and 

 keeping it in my room under a glass cover. The dark colour 

 was fully developed on the third day, but I fancy that a longer 

 period would be required in the darkling recesses in which the 

 insect loves to pass its life. 



One of the most curious points about the Cockroach is the 

 mode in which its eggs are deposited. The eggs of most in- 

 sects are independent of each other, or at the most are attached 

 to each other after they are deposited, and are either defended 

 by being laid in some sheltered spot, by animal varnish with 

 which they are covered, or, in a few instances, by an artificial 

 covering placed over them by the mother insect. But the 

 eggs of the Cockroach are differently constituted, and are laid 

 all together, enveloped in a hard horny covering, in which 

 they lie like peas in a pod. The technical name for this egg- 

 case is ootheca, a word which signifies ' egg-purse.' The egg- 

 case of the common Cockroach is showTi in Woodcut XXV. 

 Fig. e, and at/ the same egg-case is drawn, but represented as 

 laid open, so as to show the manner in which the eggs lie side 

 by side in it. 



This egg-case looks exactly like the kind of tart called 

 popidarly a 'turnover;' and indeed if the apple which is generally 

 enclosed in tlie ' turnover ' were cut into slices, and these slices 

 arranged side by side, a very accurate copy of the egg-case 

 would be made, the apple representing the eggs, and the crust 

 the egg-case itself. These egg-cases vary in appearance ac- 

 cording to the species of the insect wliich produced them. 



